Engineer, Holmesville at odds over paving job

Published: August 17, 2000 12:00 AM

The hot topic Monday at Holmesville Village Council has been simmering for about a year, according to village clerk Dee Crone.

Discussion centered around alternative procedures for laying sewer line on Benton Avenue (County Road 189), which was repaved last year. The road owned on the north side by the village and on the south, by the county, has become a subject of contention between the village and Holmes County Engineer Robert Kasner.

The recent repaving of Benton Avenue is at the heart of the issue, Crone said after the meeting.

The most efficient way to proceed with the sanitary sewer project in progress in Holmesville is to dig and cut out Benton Avenue, according to Josh J. Bauer, construction coordinator for the project. The current permit issued by Kasner allows the project to proceed only by boring under the pavement.

Because of the pending sewer line project, according to Crone, council declined Kasner's offer last year to repave the road that intersects with Millersburg Street, flanks the south side of the village as Benton Avenue and stretches past the town limits, as County Road 189, into Benton, a distance of about five or six miles.

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"Our soil is so sandy, the streets cave in during excavation. We knew we would be losing 40 to 60 percent of our streets (during sewer installation), so we thought, why waste the money," the village clerk said.

The county engineer opted to repave anyway and sent council a bill for its half of the project, Crone said. The village responded with a letter saying money for repaving had not been appropriated in the budget, she said.

Because the project has reached Benton Avenue and council believes the county engineer is reluctant to permit the paving to be sacrificed for the sewer lines, "we have to rethink our strategy," she said.

Resolving the conflict will require some compromise, but the solution could be coming soon, Kasner and Bauer both said on Tuesday.

The give and take between the consulting engineer and the county engineer began in July. In exchange for an "exception" that would permit open cutting of the main line and crossings, Bauer, representing the consulting engineer, made an offer to pave the entire road.

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Kasner, who has since consulted with Holmes County Commissioners, said he has no objection to the plan, but required confirmation when the asphalt resurfacing would be completed. "We will not tolerate this being left undone over a winter season," he said in a letter to Bauer.

In a letter to the county engineer, Bauer said the proposed construction would be done before the end of this year and the base asphalt course would be placed within 30 days after the excavation is made.

Kasner, who was not present at the meeting, said Tuesday the situation "all started on the wrong foot" last year. Preliminary plans were agreed on by the engineer and a person who then served as project liaison for the village,but were not carried out, he said. That person is no longer employed by W.E. Quicksall and Associates Inc. of New Philadelphia, he said.

The county engineer said the village "intimated" last year it would go half and half on the paving project that was estimated at about $1,800. He said he went ahead with the repaving when an opportunity arose to do it for about $6,600. When he sent a bill asking for the village's portion of the cost, he was told there was no money.

Kasner said he refused in April 1999 to issue the consulting engineer a "blanket permit" to proceed in any way he considered necessary. At that time, the Quicksall representative was assured of "the issuance of any necessary permits ... as needed once the job is bid and a contract has been awarded," Kasner said.

Bauer said the existing pavement could be preserved by boring under it and pushing the pipes through, but a cost estimate of $130,000 would make it impractical. Digging and cutting open the pavement, then overlaying the road would cost about $30,000, he said.

"Our goal is a completed project that makes everyone happy and is the most economical to our client," Bauer said.